FOLK COOKERY W E had done our best with whist drives, socials, sixpenny hops, and a flower show to raise the money for a village nurse. Now the Ladies' Committee was planning how to make up our deficiencies. "I feel strongly," said Mrs. Begger- ley Blatchford, "that we should make a little book of Old English cookery- local lore, you know. And sell it at the post office and the railway station." We had rather expected her to feel like this. The B. B.'s have a great deal of local and regional piety. Morris- dancers trample their lawn, their halls resound with sackbuts and fipple pipes, their cushions have hand-woven covers, rugged as granite. "Elwin could print it for us," she continued. "And then we could charge much more for it. Hand-printed books always sell so nicely." (Elwin is Mr. Beggerley Blatchford and owns a hand press. ) She was well away now. "And the dear old people who contribute the recipes will feel they have done their share. That would be so nice, too. Sup- pose we each comb half a dozen? " Most of our dear old people had been allotted to us when we remembered Mary Granby, absent from this meeting because her "Eton Crop" haircut could be attended to only on Wednesdays, w hen that godlike Mr. Henry visited the county-town hairdresser. ",^,T ell, now, who's left over to give Mrs. Granby?" said Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford. "There's Mrs. Bugler, and Mrs. Trim, and Mrs. What's-Her- Name; you know, the good old thing with that dreadful husband. You know. He drinks, and was rather tiresome on I . d " e ectlon ay. "Mrs. Sturmey?" "Mrs. Sturmey. I think three would be quite enough for Mary Granby." O N my way home I met the grocer's van, which nourishes us three times a week. The vanman likes con- versation. He understood that it was with no bad intent that I asked him what staples he sold the most of. "Bread and soap," he replied un- hesitatingly. "And groceries?" "Well, tinned salmon. We sell quite a lot of that. Then there's cereals. Here it's all Grape-Nuts, but over at Canon's Caudle it's Rolled Oats. Then there's cheese. And vinegar. And in summer it would surprise you how well these new lemonade crystals go." He came run- nIng after me to say he had forgotten Jam. Different people demand dIfferent approaches. Jane Pitman, who was next on my list, is one of those who like a direct approach. "Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford wants to know what your mother ate," I said to her. "Bread and scrape, Miss. Same as we ." "Suppose your father happened to bring back a hare?" "Sell it. Hare meat ain't wholesome for the likes of us, not while smells come out of chimney pots and tongues do wag in folkse ' headses." I went next to Mrs. Goshawk, who, it developed, looked more sympathet- ically on the folklore of cookery. Old- fashioned ways had more to them, she said, and she had never had a tin-opener equal to the one she started married life with. Mrs. Rump, who happened to be borrowing a large-eyed needle from Mrs. Goshawk, agreed as to the virtues of times past. Look at the doc- tur's stuff we get now, she said. Old Dr. Faux had a pill that went through you like a ferret. Miss Owles told me that if you rub a wart with a piece of raw beef, the beef will wither and so will the wart. But you couldn't do it with imported beef, she said. Mrs. Tizard, after long thinking, gave me a recipe for furniture polish, and a warning never to eat mushrooms after the first of October. Mrs. Cockaday gave me some medical advice of a kind which Elwin Beg- gerley Blatchford could never be asked to print; a recommendation to keep to dark teapots, for they made the tea stronger; and a large bunch of flow- ers. W HEN we came to pool our results with Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford, the total was disappointing: dark tea- pots make the strongest tea; chewing a clove will ease toothache; tough meat can be softened by burying it for a night and a day; sheep pastured in a churchyard don't make wholesome eat- ing; a pint of warm beer stirred with a red-hot poker will cure the backache. And we had Miss Owles' cure for warts, and the recipes for Mrs. Tizard's furniture polish and Mrs. Tucker's grandmother's Kettle Broth, which was made by pouring boiling water on a sliced onion and some stale crusts. All the investigators had been told that mushrooms are poisonous after the first of October. "There is the same belief in Yugoslavia. Isn't that fascinat- 65 ing?" said Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford. "We must put in a little footnote about that. Folklore IS so wonderfully univer- sal. " Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford's own discoveries were of a more Arcadian na- ture. They included bramble-tip cordial, cowslip pie, and candied hemlock. I, for one, did not believe in them. Mary Granby was the only one still to re- port. "Now, Mrs. Granby," said Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford, "you are our last h " ope. "Well, I could do nothing with Mrs. Bugler, and Mrs. Trim was In bed with rheumatism, so I left her. But I've got these." She opened a notebook. There was a great deal of pencil writ- ing, in a singularly careful and childish hand. She read to us. " 'Turnip Tan- tivy. Take three turnips, five pounds of raisins, a pound of the best butter, half a bottle of whisky, pepper and salt, mix and fry in a large iron fry- ing pan that has a flavour of bloaters. \Vhen the turnips have taken up all the whisky, turn out into a pie dish.' "'Cottage Stew. Take some par- tridges, three or four; a pheasant, a fowl, a good hare, two pounds of the best beefsteak, green bacon in thick slices, vegetables, and herbs. Season richly and stew in a pot for three hours. Then pour in about a teapotful of port wine, and simmer for another hour.' " 'Flummery. Cover the bottom of a deep basin with sliced quinces, strewed with nutmeg. Lay on them slices of Double Gloucester cheese. Then more quinces. Then more cheese. Go on do- ing this till the basin is twu-thirds full. Pour in enough rich cream and old rum in equal quantities to cover them hand- somely, and eat with cake.' "Mrs. Sturmey was out at work," ary Granby explained. "But her hus- band was at home, and he dictated these recipes to me. He said this was how his old mother used to cook." " H .." d ow very InterestIng, answere Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford. "Quite in the traditional spirit of English cook lore! But I wonder if we ought to in- clude these recipes in our book. You see, Mrs. Granby, we hope our little book will be used by our dear villagers themselves. Perhaps these recipes would be a little ambitious-not quite in keep- ing with their simple tastes, dear souls! " The meeting broke up soon after this, and Mrs. Beggerley Blatchford has not called the Ladies' Committee to- gether since. Elwin is now hand-print- ing a booklet on Our Neolithic Re- mains.-SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER